Tips for organizing a MOOC

Thanks to Michael Rowe for highlighting this blog post on 6 steps to organising a MOOC. This provides a great overview for those embarking on running their first MOOC. While we can’t claim to have the level of experience of Dr Muller, we do have our own top tips based on our experience of running a mini-cMOOC this summer:

Finding/recruiting collaborators is key… they will help share the sometimes painful burden of providing the 24-7 support that holds the course together.

Keep it simple both on platforms/technologies used and tasks assigned, so students can concentrate on the content and sharing/collaborating rather than struggling with using multiple systems and assignments.

Don’t assume you have to use a closed or paid for platform. The free and easy to use WordPress.com was perfect for us. Using Google hangouts or Skype would probably satisfy most synchronous needs, but bear in mind with a global cohort synchronous activities would almost always exclude some participants.